The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1887-10-22

Eultofs MISSISSIPPI valley Farmer:
wish to extend an invitation to all
interested in Southern grass and stock
farming, through your valuable jOurn-
al, to visit me and inspect my meadows
that are now soon to be moved.
l think can thereby convince any
man of sound common sense that there
is no better country within the limits
Of the United States that | am acquaint-
ed with, except, possibly, the blue grass
regions Of Kentucky, which is better
adapted to stock and grass farming
than South Mississippi and louisiana
the hill districts Of each State es-
pecially(
II may be said that | sm, in so doing,
raising up competitors in my own line
of business. That is true, but can
only say in answer that have never
labored for self-sggrandizement and
never will that our people are being
bankrupted by pursuing the one crop
policy, placing all of their capital, and
all that they can borrow, in the attempt
to make cotton as their only source o,
revenue making crops that do not, OK
cept in occasional instances, pay the
cost of production and leave any mar
gin of profit for the producer ;exhaus-
ting their lands in tho production OF
this crop year after.
Looking over the whole South and
estimating the value of the cotton on
hand at the close Of the war, then adj
ding thereto tho value of all the crops
Of cotton that have been made and
sold since and including the year 1866
there is presented most amazing ar
ray of figures, representing almost in
calculable values. View that picture
for one moment and then take an in.
vcntory of all the values that remain
to-day, farm, stock, improvements and
all net issues, and subtract the balance
from the first, and what an astounding
result
Thousands OF millions of dollsrl
produced and yet coutry bankrupt il
nearly every branch of farming. Lands
deprecated in price 500 per cent, i'm
provements gone to wreck, mortgage
piled up, stock gone, former owners o
princely estates banished from thei
homes and laboring as employees o
those who once served them as EN-
ployes or tradesmen.
Can this picture. you may say, NOR
true of the country five years ago .thal
now, be proclaimed even now rs falls
in any essential particular II th
prospect has in any matter brightene
in the last five years to what instru
mentality is attributable the rays G
this new light ? Is II not the lntrodu'
ton ofncw elements, of gain rathe
than now and improved methods {
cultivating the one staple7 Is It nc
attributable to diversified farming
Tho introduction Of manufacturing a
applied to the smaller industries of th
farm2
Have not the little Jersey COW, tn
creamery, the meadow, the truck farm
the agricultural and mechanical schoo
which teach farming on correct prime
pies, done more to create hope and Ii
the pail Of despair from the hearts {
Southern farmers, and through the al
gricultural interest the whole Sout
than all of the wonderful booms thu
have echoed the fabulous miners
wealth Of the South to the remotci
bounds Of the globc2
If this be true, then am | not Just
fed in sticking to the idea and the d,
termination to demonstrate the valu
of the South as a stockraislng, gras
; growing, dairy and beef producin
country, As the means of bringing th
most general, the most widely sproa
and far reaching, and withal tho mos
solid and substantial, the most who'll
justiflablc and reliable boom of tn
South, and the boom most needed a
last
These are the reasons which impe
me to seek the columns of the agricul
tural journals of the South, that grea
lever in all meritorious enterprises
the press, to proclaim that we have tn,
finest grass and stock country, and t
offer to demonstrate it with all of tn
apparent egotism that such claim i'm
plies. For | do believe that the sigh
of 200 acres of meadows in Mespedcz
Strata that now have ready for tn
mower, will satisfy the most skeptica
that / claim nothing for our countr!
that is not within the bounds ofreasoi
and readily attainable by every farme
tn the South.
am perfectly satisfied that an.
farmer who will put 100 acres in RET
rust proof oats in the fall, and SOW
that land in the Spring, on the grow
ing oats, to Lespedeza Strata grass
and market the oat crop in the earl.
summer. and then market the hay crol
from that same land in the fall, vii
make more money per acre, in the bill
districts, If he has convenient marke
; for his hay, than he can make on tn
same land in cotton. Now deduct thu
expense of cultivation in each cas-
and am sure the net result will be
long way in favor Of the grass an
oat crop.
/ shall mail you in few days the ca
talogues of two of our Fair Associi
, tions. Those Fairs will be held RI
, spectively in Wilkinson county, Miss
and West Feliciana, La, in the mont
! of October. And we extend cordi'
invitation to yourselves to confer ii
honor of your presence upon our e
: forts to bring about new industri'
= and better state of things.
6 j. BuRRUss MCGEfBB
Q Bayou Sara, La, Aug. 1S, 1887.